Udāna
7 7: Papañcakhaya Suttaɱ
Awakening (1)
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.
[VII-7.1] I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī at Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery. And on that occasion the Blessed One was sitting, contemplating his own abandoning of the perceptions and categories of objectification.
Then the Blessed One, realizing his own abandoning of the perceptions and categories of objectification, on that occasion exclaimed:
One who
has no objectifications,[1]
no standing-place,[2]
who has gone beyond
the tether and cross-bar:
The world, even with its devas,
doesn't look down on him —
he, going about without craving,
a sage.
[1] Papañca: A mode of thought that begins with the assumption, "I am the thinker," and develops its categories and perceptions — about self and world, about existence and non-existence — from there. For more on this topic, see the introduction to MN 18 and Skill in Questions, chapters 3 and 8.
[2] On the teaching that the awakened person has no location, see The Paradox of Becoming, chapter 7.
